1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to desktop sterilizers for books and, more particularly, to a desktop sterilizer for books which is installed in a library, a book rental store, a kindergarten, etc. such that an administrator or a user can easily and effectively sterilize books which are used by an unspecified number of the general public.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, various books which are rent, read or otherwise used by an unspecified number of the general public may be contaminated by different users, food or the like, thus resulting in the propagation of mold or germs. Therefore, the users may be exposed to various diseases attributable to contact having been made with such books.
Particularly, in the case where the pages of a book which are in the overlapped state and which are also covered with covers are contaminated, even should the book be sterilized by a typical ultraviolet (UV) sterilizer, the effect of sterilizing the book is not satisfactory, because UV rays cannot irradiate the interior, that is, the pages of the book.
Representative conventional techniques pertaining to sterilizers were proposed in Korean Patent Registration No. 0416317 or Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2001-336877.
The technique proposed in No. 0416317 pertains to a sterilizer for shoes which is constructed such that an auxiliary UV lamp is inserted into a shoe to sterilize it. Thus, this technique cannot be used to sterilize books having many pages.
In the book dryer proposed in No. 2001-336877, a blower dries pages of a book while it is being sterilized by a sterilization lamp. However, in this technique, hot air passes through the book in the direction parallel to the spine of the book. Here, when hot air passes between the pages of the book, air pressure between the pages becomes lower than that of the outside of the pages in accordance with Bernoulli's theorem. Thereby, the pages are in close proximity to each other, so that UV rays cannot effectively radiate the pages of the book.
Furthermore, the pages of a book may not be completely laid open by just placing the book in a rectangular chamber such that the book spine is disposed at the lower position. For example, in the cases of a thin and small book, such as a poetry collection, a novel having soft covers (many books stored in a library have soft covers), or a children's story book having a small number of pages each of which is thick, this technique cannot be used.
The inventor of the present invention inquired into the conventional problems assiduously and found out the following facts. If UV rays can be irradiated onto the book in a state in which covers and pages of the book are completely laid open, a satisfactory sterilization effect of preventing contagion by various diseases attributable to contact with contaminated books can be obtained. Furthermore, in a library or the like, if in addition to an administrator of books users can also easily sterilize the books using a book sterilizer, the users can be educated such that they more voluntarily and more often use the book sterilizer. As a result, the users can be protected from contagion by various diseases attributable to contact being made with contaminated books, and the books can be managed such that they are prevented from being contaminated from contaminants, thus extending the lifetime of the books, thereby reducing costs for the repurchase of books which are frequently used. The inventor developed the present invention on the basis of these facts.